Move Along, Nothing To See Here
Certainly not any evidence of willful misconduct by Gov. Beverly Perdue’s campaign, or at least none that the lead investigator for the State Board of Elections could find.
The reason? Um, that would be because Elections Board Chairman Larry Leake, a Democrat and long-time political ally of Perdue, ordered the lead investigator not to interview potentially key witnesses during the probe into 42 undisclosed campaign flights, according to this report from The Raleigh News & Observer.
Kim Starch, the deputy of campaign finance at the Elections Board, said Leake told her to end the investigation without interviewing Zach Ambrose, the governor’s longtime chief of staff and campaign manager. This from The N&O:
The detailed report that Strach wrote was edited by supervisors to remove references to restrictions placed on her during the investigation into flights by Perdue and other 2008 candidates for governor.
Leake said he was trying to assist Strach in getting the report completed in a timely manner. A public records request for the report had been filed by The News & Observer, and Republican Party officials had complained that the investigation was taking too long, Leake said.
“Kim is suggesting to you that if she could have had until next Christmas that she could have done better,” Leake said. “We needed to bring this investigation to an end. ‘End’ doesn’t mean whitewashed.”
In a June 25 letter released with the investigative report, elections director Gary Bartlett said “no evidence surfaced indicating any intent of wrongdoing.”
Now it appears that Starch might be forced out of her job, thanks to some last minute, early-morning fixes during this year’s legislative session. That’s when funding was restored, in a vote taken at 3:21 a.m. Saturday before the General Assembly adjourned, to provide $100,000 to hire a lawyer that will likely take over responsibility for investigations of campaigns.
Chrissy Pearson, Perdue’s spokeswoman, said the governor had supported the request in order to strengthen the Board of Elections. She said the idea that the positions were funded to sideline Strach is false. “We certainly were not involved,” she said.
These folks would make the Genovese and Bonanno families blush.
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